WASHINGTON — As Japan copes with one crisis after another at its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex, a review of federal records indicates that nearly a quarter of America’s nuclear reactors in 13 states share the same design as the ill-fated Japanese reactors.
The plants, called Mark I Boiling Water Reactors, were designed by General Electric.
GE, which is donating $5 million to Japan for its relief effort, said Monday it was too early to assess what produced the problems at the complex.
Five of the six reactors at the Japanese plant use the same General Electric reactor that are at 23 nuclear plants in North Carolina, Georgia, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Alabama, Nebraska, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Massachusetts and Vermont, according to a database maintained by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
